


A Good Egg, but a Little Scrambled

by Unleashed111



Series: Epileptic Mike [1]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Epilepsy, Gen, Head Injury, Headaches & Migraines, Seizures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-03 19:44:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11539158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unleashed111/pseuds/Unleashed111
Summary: What if Mike was only such an airhead and a little more aggressive than the other hosts because he was conked on the head. A blow to the head doesn't work like how it does in the movies. If you hit someone on the head hard enough to knock them out then you hit them hard enough to kill them or at least cause brain damage. This takes place right after Mike is shot into space.





	1. Welcome to the SOL

**Author's Note:**

> Warning again for seizures and epilepsy. I don't have epilepsy or have experience a seizure, but I did a lot of research on the topic before and during the writing process. If you think anything is wrong or needs help please comment below! I just want to bring awareness to the issue as well as the fact you really can't knock someone out with a blow to the head and not expect brain damage.

_ Somewhere in time and space - …Where… Am I? What’s… that loud... rumbling? ...My head hurts… _

“TOM! CROW!” Gypsy looked back to the bots who were still screaming since Joel left them. “A ship landed in the hanger!”

“AHHH- wait, a ship!” Tom and Crow stopped and looked to the screen Gypsy was looking at.

They gave each other a knowing look and rushed down to see what or who had landed on the SOL. Crow beat Tom with his long legs and quickly opened the rocket that had landed in their hanger.

“Tom, look! It’s another Joel! Er, not Joel, but a jumpsuited human!” Crow started pulling Mike from the rocket.

“Urrghhh,” Mike was barely awake as Crow pulled him free.

Mike opened his eyes a little wider and groaned as the bright lights blinded him for a second.  _ What… is that standing.. over me? Oh... I’ve seen that... before… little robot guy…  _ When Tom finally was able to catch up to Crow he leaned in to inspect their newest member.

Crow pushed Tom out of the way and glared directly into Mike’s still hazy eyes, “Where’s Joel! What have you done to him!”

“Crow!” Tom squawked at his invasive brother.

“Whoo’sss Jooell?” Mike slurred slightly.

“Leave Mike alone!” Gypsy slithered into the room and pushed Tom and Crow back.

Mike looked around hazily, everything was so fuzzy. His brain felt full of cotton as the gears desperately tried to turn and keep up with everything going on. His head was pounding too. He lifted his hand to gently rub his head to try and soothe the sharp pain he was feeling. Slowly feeling around he tried to get to his feet, only to stumble forwards. A wave a nausea hit him hard and his stomach began to feel uneasy.

“EWW! He threw up!” Crow cried, “I’m not cleaning that up!”

Mike blearily looked around and held his hand up in front of his face - it was fuzzy. That was funny he didn’t think he needed glasses. Actually everything was blurry. Taking a deep breath his vision cleared slightly and his brain finally came to rest on the bright red, sticky substance on his hand.  _ Is that… blood? _

While Crow was concerned about the throw up that Gypsy was already taking care of; Tom was more concerned with the blood, “Is he supposed to be bleeding like that?”

Gypsy stopped her cleaning for a moment to see Mike staring blankly at his bloody hand. 

“I’mm... bllloood?” Mike squinted at his hand and slowly touched it to his head again where it came away with more red.

“Oh! Honey!” Gypsy shoved the cleaning supplies over to Crow who made a disgusted face, but did as he was told.

Before anything else could happen a loud alarm rang through the satellite.

“The mads are calling!” Tom cried, “We aren’t ready!”

“Sorry, Mike!” Gypsy scooped him up in her mouth and rushed him to the screen to answer the mad’s call as Crow and Tom raced behind her.

Gypsy gently set him down and quickly grabbed a bucket lying around before he could throw up on the floor again. Tom and Crow both rushed to their places and waited for Mike to hit the button, but Mike just looked pained as the loud alarm didn’t help his headache.

“Crow! He doesn’t know about anything yet! Hit the button!” Tom yelled after a few moments went by.

Crow slapped the button and Dr. Forrester and Frank’s faces lit up the screen with their joyful faces.

“Ah! So you did make it after all! That good.” Dr. Forrester gleamed.

“I don’t feel so good.” Mike mumbled.

“Meh, probably just a mild concussion, you’ll be fine; HOWEVER! You won’t be as soon as we start experiments! I’m thinking, not tomorrow because me and Frank have plans. How about the day after tomorrow. We are already behind since Joelie-cakes decided to split.” Dr. Forrester mumbled.

“Uhh, he’s kinda bleeding everywhere,” Frank pointed out. “Are you sure you didn’t hit him too hard?”

“Shut up, Frank! Who’s the doctor around here?”

“You’re not a medical do-”

“I SAID SHUT IT!” Dr. Forrester turned back to the screen and gave a sickly sweet smile, “Now, I’ll be seeing you the day after tomorrow.”

He quickly cut the transmission and Mike slid to the floor. Gypsy came back into the room with bandages.

“Here, you can rest in your new room, ok?” Gypsy gently tugged on his jumpsuit.

“M’wanna go home.” Mike whinned

“I know honey, but you’re stuck here for now.” Gypsy nudged him gently into his new room.

The room was still full of Joel’s old stuff - random half finished inventions, tools, blueprints, books opened to random pages, and some red gizmonic jumpsuits scattered around. It certainly looked like home to the previous owner. Mike stumbled in the dark to the bed and sat down quietly.

“Gypsy! We wanna test the new guy out! You know, get him ready for the movies!” Both Crow and Tom whinned.

“No! You saw how bad Mike was! He could barely stand! Humans aren’t like bots. They can’t be fixed with a few replacement parts!” Gypsy scolded them.

“What?! Humans are so lame!” Crow muttered as both of them wandered off to make mischief elsewhere.

Gypsy sighed and turned her focus back to Mike. Gently as she could for a big robot she cleaned the cut on his head and wrapped a bandage around it. Mike muttered a thanks and gingerly laid down in bed. Just as he closed his eyes he felt a weight in his lap.

“You probably shouldn’t go to sleep. You might fall into a coma.”

“Is that really a bad thing? I’m stuck here now. I can’t see my family or friends anymore.” Mike sniffed.

“Aww come on! You’ll be able to escape one day! But you have to be awake to do it!” Gypsy picked up her head a bit.

Mike muttered in agreement, “What am I supposed to do with all this time though?”

“I can tell you stories! How about that?” Gypsy chirped, “All about Joel and the bots!”

Gypsy talked for hours about the shenanigans that happened here on the SOL. Mike did his best to stay awake but he brain was barely functioning. Everything was hazy and felt an annoyance creep up on him. He didn’t do anything to deserve this and he certainly didn’t want to take the place of the other guy up here. This was the other guy’s world up here not Mike’s and he didn’t plan on hanging around long. He would find a way out.

“Mike you still awake?” Gypsy asked.

Mike slowly turned his head as his brain raced to catch up, “yeah, yeah.”

“Good then you’ll love this next story!”

Interrupted from his train of thought before he realized that he should give the bots a chance afterall from what Gypsy was saying they seem like pretty neat fellas. He still ached for home and the irritation he felt earlier was tucked away. He was mentally exhausted. His brain had never felt so fuzzy before. He was moving in slow motion and where there once was many different trains of thought there was only one that was barely moving at all.

“Well Mike it’s been almost 5 hours now. I’m gonna go get you something to eat and drink then I think you can try to sleep.”

Mike barely acknowledged her as she left. He was left alone in the dark and quiet. He didn’t know how long he sat staring at the tube socks dangling from the dresser, but Gypsy reappeared with some food and water. He accepted it silently but didn’t move his eyes from the socks until he was done. Slowly he laid down and drifted to sleep.

Every few hours Gypsy would come in and wake him up to make sure he was still ok as well as change the bandage on his head. When it was finally morning again, she couldn’t hold off the other bots any longer. They burst into the room and gathered around the bed.

“Hey! Not Joel! Wake up! You gotta get up and do stuff now!” Crow shook him.

“Keep doing that and I will throw up again.” Mike groaned as he slowly sat up.

“Yuck! I don’t wanna clean that up again.” Crow pouted.

“Hey! We have a whole day planned for you!” Tom said excitedly.

“Oh yeah do it include rest and nothing too crazy?” Gypsy interrupted.

“Aww Gypsy, you’re no fun! Don’t you have to go control everything!” Both bots whinned.

“Don’t do anything too strenuous! Show him around if you want!” Gypsy backed out a little unwillingly, but they were right she did have a lot of work to do since she was busy taking care of Mike all yesterday.

“Yeah, yeah!” Tom waved her off as Crow pulled Mike out of bed.

“C’mon Not Joel! We have so much to show you!”

“My name is Mike!”

“Well you’re Not Joel now!”

The bots raced down the hallways and Mike trudged behind. His head was still hazy and barely functioning. He had to admit the bots were pretty cute. They were so excited to show him around their home. They were so welcoming. They passed by a box of empty hamdinger and and flash of anger took over. Joel escaped and he was trapped. From what Gypsy said it sounded like Joel was perfectly ok up here. Why did he need to leave and why did he have to be the one stuck here?

“Not Joel? C’mon, no one like hamdingers.” Tom tugged on his pant leg.

He snapped out of his trance before following the smaller bot along. They ended the tour in the movie theater. Where they ushered him into the seat where Joel sat. Another spike of irritation hit him. Why did he feel like nothing but a replacement. He was Not Joel. He could never be the so amazing Joel. The so amazing Joel left. He left for no reason! He was Mike and he would leave and maybe take the bots too. Why would he leave them here? Such a terrible fate. He would become more than Not Joel. He would be Mike.

He didn’t even notice that the bots had actually started a movie until there were bright flashing light on the screen. Crow and Tom started screaming loudly as Mike started convulsing in the seat.

“Gypsy! We messed up!” Crow cried. “Cambot stop the movie!”

“More like you messed up! You picked the movie!” Tom bickered.

Cambot chirped at them.

“Oh quiet you! We don’t need your sass right now!” Tom huffed

Mike was twitching and flailing helplessly as Gypsy rushed to the rescue.

“Tom! Crow! Put him on the ground and turn him to his side!” Gypsy rushed over to the mess.

“Ahhh! He’s flailing too much!” Tom cried as he was whacked again by a jerking limb.

Together the three of them managed to get Mike to the ground and rolled him gently on his side so he wouldn’t choke on anything. Once he began to stop convulsing they backed off a little bit and let him recover. He just laid on the floor in silence for a few minutes, staring listlessly at the ceiling.

“Good job, idiot! You killed him!” Tom snapped after a while.

“He’s not dead.” Crow huffed but didn’t take his eyes off of Mike.

“Wha? What is happening?” Mike slowly sat up.

“You had a seizure.” Gypsy explained.

“Wahhhhh! We’re sorry! We didn’t want to hurt you!” The bots cried and hugged Mike tightly. “We just wanted you to get ready for the experiment tomorrow!”

“Wha?” Mike rubbed his face tiredly.

“We didn’t mean for this to happen!” Crow buried his face further into Mike’s chest.

His brain felt even more fuzzy than before and he could barely understand the bots.

“It’s ok guys,” Mike patted them reassuringly.

“We need to talk to the mads immediately!” Gypsy decided, “This is serious!”

“Huh who?” Mike questioned.

“Like mad Scientists,” Tom explained. “The mads!”

“Ah.” Mike said still a little dazed.

Mike got his feet slowly and followed the bots to the call the mads. They pressed the button and looked to the screen expectantly.

“What do you want?” Dr. Forrester’s grumpy face filled the screen, “Frank and I were doing ummm… important stuff.”

“MIKE HAD A SEIZURE!” Tom yelled out.

Mike looked at him with surprise: Tom actually used him name.

“Whaaat! Seriously!” Dr. Forrester looked less concerned and more irritated at the setback.

“I’m sorry, I’ll control my neurons better next time.” Mike said sarcastically.

“Ugh, fine. I’ll sent up some medication. That is the last time I’m conking someone on the head though.” Dr. Forrester growled.

“I think it’s more complicated than just some medicine…” Gypsy trailed off.

“Listen! I am perfectly capable of handling this, missy.” Dr. Forrester turned to yell at Frank, “Frank! Lookup epilepsy on webmd!”

The transmission was cut abruptly. Mike stared at the screen as his irritation built. Dr. Forrester was the cause for all this and yet he didn’t do anything to help him. He had the nerve to call himself a doctor and he couldn’t even help the person who he hurt! Annoyance leaked from every fiber of his being.

“Well that was stupid,” Mike huffed. “We didn’t really get anything out of those idiots.”

The bots stared at him. Mike blinked a few time before realizing something was wrong.

“What?”

“Don’t you think you were a little harsh? We got the medicine. Dr. Forrester isn’t that stupid; he’ll give you what you need.” Gypsy explained.

“Oh true, I guess I just lost my temper. Sorry that usually doesn’t happen.” Mike rubbed the back of his head nervously.

To be honest he’s felt a little more irritable lately but he just chalked it up to being tired, in pain, and sick. His brain was still fuzzy and confused; plus the seizure didn’t help at all. He was just really tired and wanted to go back to sleep. He excused himself and exited the room to go back and take a nap. The bots watched him leave.

“Man, talk about short fuse.” Crow rolled his eyes.

“It might not all be his fault.” Gypsy was still looking at the door Mike had just left through. “Head injuries can cause changes in personality and irritability.”

“C’mon Crow, we should do something nice for Not Joel.” Tom looked over to Crow.

“What! Why!” Crow complained.

“We did cause a seizure.”

“Err… oh yeah…” Crow looked down guiltily. “Oops.”

“I have an idea but you’re gonna have to help since my arms don’t really work.” Tom rushed out the door with Crow trailing behind.

Gypsy sighed as the two left to go do their own thing. Gypsy looked back at the screen with determination. She would force the mads to take Mike’s injury more seriously. He was such a nice and helpful guy when talking to him before he got conked. Now he was dazed, confused, and more agitated than before.

Meanwhile, Mike was taking a short nap when the door opened and two figures walked into the room. They quietly walked over to Mike’s bed and tried to wake him gently.

“Pst! Not Joel, er Mike!” Tom poked him.

“Wake up!” Crow said with a little less patience than Tom.

“Erk, what? What do you guys want?” Mike rubbed his eyes and sat up.

Crow held out what looked like a necklace made of wire. There was a small piece of metal dangling from the wires. Mike took it from Crow’s hand cautiously and inspected the necklace closer. The metal had something in graved on it - there was a medical symbol on one side and one the other:

_ Mike Nelson _

_ -Epilepsy- _

_ Only call 911 if seizure lasts more than 5mins _

“What is this?” Mike squinted at it.

“It’s a medical alert necklace! Crow and I looked it up online! People who have seizures regularly should have a medical alert thing to let people know about their condition!” Tom said proudly, “This way they’ll know what is happening and what to do!”

“Guys, I don’t have epilepsy!” Mike sighed.

“Oh yeah! How do you know?” Crow shot back.

“Because! I haven’t had more than one seizure!” Mike placed the necklace down on the bedside table.

“I can help with that!” Crow said missing the point.

“Er no, Crow that’s not what I mean.” Mike sighed, “but thank you for the gift. I’m-”

“Oh we aren’t done! We made you a card too!” Tom said cheerfully.

Tom handed over a card that had made for him. The card was poorly folded in half and in big lettering the words  _ We’re Sorry!  _ were sprawled across the top of the card. Under the wording there was a figure on the ground making twitching movements which Mike assumed was him and Tom and Crow were standing around them with sad faces. Mike smiled a bit to see they drew eyes on Tom.

Opening the card it said ‘We’re sorry we made you lose control of your body by showing you flashing lights! We just wanted to help :(‘. Mike felt a warm feeling bubble up inside him. These little bots might be harsh sometimes, but they certainly cared about him. Joel did some good work programing them. They really did just want to help him get through the mads’ experiment.

“Joel told us when you say sorry you should be very specific to show that you understand what you did wrong!” Crow piped up.

“Aww, you guys. I know you were just trying to help. Thank you.” Mike grinned brightly.

“Really!” Tom perked up.

“You’re welcome, Mike.” Crow beamed.

Mike blinked and then even in his hazy mind he caught was Crow had said, “hey! You called me Mike!”

“Er, no I didn’t Not Joel!”

“Yeah you did!” Mike laughed, “You like me!”

“Whatever! C’mon Tom, we have to go now!” Crow grabbed Tom and quickly ran out the door.

Mike smiled and picked up the necklace that he put on the table next to him. He rolled it around in his hand mulling it over. For the first time in a while he was happy. Sure his head was still moving at a snail’s pace and there was pain, but he didn’t feel so alone anymore. Slowly he placed the necklace around his neck. Sure it was really useless since no one on the ship would ever need to look at it, but it was a cute thought and the bots seemed to have really put a lot of effort into it.

“Mike!” Gypsy entered the room a few moments after the bots left.

Mike was silent as he continued to stare at the card he was given.

‘ “Mike!” Gypsy tried again, “I’ve got some good new for you!”

“Hmm? Oh, Gypsy! When did you get here?” Mike asked confused.

“Nevermind that! I convinced the Mads to send up some medical stuff so we can check on you brain!”

“That’s neat.” Mike stared at her blankly.

“Well? C’mon! Let’s go get it!” Gypsy gently tugged Mike out of bed and down the hallway.

“Geez, Gypsy! Slow down I’m still not all balanced up there.”

“We’re almost there!” Gypsy threw open the container that the mads had just sent up to find a strange camera shaped invention and a wide variety of medication.

“Whoa! How did you get them to send all this?” Mike’s eyes widened.

“Nevermind that!” Gypsy brushed him off as she grabbed the camera invention, “this is Dr. Forrester’s new invention. It’s a camera CT scan basically.”

Gypsy removed the old bandages and nudged Mike into position then took a picture with the CT camera. She took a few pictures at multiple angles to assure she got a good view of his head. Then without saying anything she rushed off to analyze the photos. Mike sat and stared at the wall for a moment before realizing that he was all alone. He shuffled back to the box to see all the medication he could possible ever need. Including some pain killers: sighing with relief he picked up the bottle and took two of the pills. Hopefully the pounding in his skull would finally die down a bit. Closing his eyes he didn’t bother to move as he plopped down next to the box and closed his eyes.

His entire brain still felt crammed full of cotton and spider webs. Sure he wasn’t sharpest tool in the shed, but now he felt like he could barely comprehend what was happening. He was shot into space and was going to be forced to watch bad movies with two robots. He just wanted to go home where this could all be a nightmare.

“Mike?” It was Gypsy, “Mike, I got the results… How long have you been sitting here?”

“Huh?” Mike looked up at her. “I dunno, since you left?”

“Oh Mike! That was hours ago!” Gypsy said worried.

Mike blinked. Hours ago? Felt like five minutes. Maybe he fell asleep.

“Well there certainly is some pretty bad bruising, but thankfully there is no internal bleeding it seems. You have a really bad concussion.” Gypsy concluded. “Also the bleeding on your head stopped so I think you don’t need the bandages anymore. Just keep it clean, ok?”

“Yeah, that’s nice.” Mike said vacantly.

“Mike, honey. I think you should go back to your room and try going to sleep.” Gypsy suggested.

“Yeah.” Mike made no motion to get up.

Gypsy sighed and tried again, “Mike you should really get up and go back to bed.”

Mike slowly looked at her and stood up and walked back to bed. Settling in to sleep, he was out before his head hit the pillow. Gypsy looked on with concern before being forced to continue to monitoring the higher functions. Down the hallway Crow and Tom watched as Gypsy left Mike’s room. They quietly crept down the hall and peeked inside. Quietly they made themselves comfy and went to sleep for the night.

“What are you two doing?”

“Wah!” Crow jerked awake, “We just wanted to keep an eye on you Mike!”

“Yeah! Just incase you had another seizure or something!” Tom agreed.

Mike sighed, he really couldn’t argue with that logic. He had a feeling today was going to be a long day. Just as he rolled over to go back to sleep loud alarms blared.

“Ah! The mads are calling!” Tom and Crow both jumped out of the bed and rushed down the hall.

Mike sighed and slowly moved himself out of bed and followed the bots who had raced off. When he entered through the door he found that the bots had already answered the call for him.

“Hey! Dr. Needahaircut! Mike isn’t better yet so you better lay off him! He might have another epilepsy!” Crow growled.

“You mean seizure.” Tom rolled his eyes.

“Yeah that too!” Crow nodded missing the point.

“Well too bad you’re not in charge here!” Dr. Forrester growled. “Do as I say!”

“What is happening here?” Mike sighed.

“Not Joel! We were just telling off the mads. You need more rest!” Tom explained.

Mike walked over to them and smiled, “thanks you guys.”

“Hey! They didn’t do anything! You’re still watching that movie!” Dr. Forrester shouted indignantly.

“Let’s make a compromise, you give me a movie that won’t stress my brain too much and I’ll watch it.” Mike crossed his arms.

“Ohhh alright, but only because I don’t need a seriously brain damaged test subject.” Dr. Forrester huffed.

“Ahhhh! We got movie sign!” Everyone cried as the flashing light and beep alerted them to go to the movie theater.

While the movie was blissfully a short film without anything too stressful or triggering like Dr. Forrester had promised. Mike was still exhausted by the end of it. He could barely understand the characters left along comprehend what little plot there was. His eyes felt strained and a slowly growing pain gather behind his eyes. He barely was able to drag himself down the hall before collapsing into bed again.

He didn’t know how much more of this abuse he could take and it was just beginning. Tom and Crow poked their heads around the corner to see how he was faring after a rough experiment.

“Hey! That film was pretty terrible huh?” Crow broke the silence.

“Mrrphhhh.” Mike just buried his head into his pillow.

“Um, ok we will leave you alone until tomorrow.” Tom ushered Crow away.

When the next day finally come, Mike slept for almost the whole day. Mike lifted his head and blearily looked around. The room was still dark as there isn’t really a sunny time on the SOL. Surprisingly he was feeling more alert than he had since he’d been hit on the head.

His brain was no longer crawling along but was more like walking leisurely. The fog was beginning to lift and he looked around the room then he had an idea. He got up and started to pick up all of Joel’s old stuff. He carefully packed them away and placed them the room across the hall, which seemed to be Joel’s main workshop area. Rummaging around he pulled out some tape, paper, and a marker. He made a sign for the door that read - Joel’s Room.

“Hey, Mike it’s nice to see you up and about!” Gypsy said as she noticed Mike finishing up his sign.

“Oh yeah, I moved Joel’s stuff out. I mean I’m gonna keep the socks because those are some neat socks, but everything else is going.” Mike ran a hand through his hair carefully; his scalp was still a little sore.

“Don’t stress yourself too much!” Gypsy warned. “I don-”

Before she could finish her sentence Mike’s eye had rolled back as he started to collapsed to the floor convulsing.

“Mike!” Gypsy cried out as she attempted to catch him before he hit his head again.

Gently she lowered him to the floor and nudged him to his side as the spasms shook his body.

“Mike!” Gypsy turned to see Crow and Tom hurrying over to them.

“What happened?” Tom asked concerned.

“I think he just pushed himself a little too hard.” Gypsy sighed. “With the movie yesterday and then moving stuff today…”

“Mike you’re an idiot!” Crow tried his best to stay tough and pretend it didn’t bother him.

Finally when Mike regained consciousness, he coughed up some spit that had gotten stuck in his throat and laid back on the floor gasping for a while.

Dazed and confused, he rubbed his eyes tiredly, “What happened?”

“You caused your own seizure, you big dummy!” Crow scolded.

“I what?” Mike had some trouble processing.

“Admit you have epilepsy now?” Tom asked.

“I guess.” Mike sighed. “This is bad. I didn’t want this to happen.”

“I’ll go get you some medication.” Gypsy hurried down to the package that the mads sent up.

“C’mon back to your room you go.” Crow tugged his sleeve.

Tom tried to help but he was a little too short for him to do anything too helpful. Gypsy quickly returned with the medication and read the instructions.

“Looks like I have to run a few tests to make sure you are getting the right amount of medication. Not too much and not too little.” Gypsy concluded.

Running what tests she could with the limited amount of supplies the mads had given her she devised the correct amount of medication to give Mike.

“Thank’s Gypsy. You’re a real life saver,” Mike sighed. “I’m just upset that this is looking like epilepsy.”

“Don’t worry Mike, you’re be ok. I promise.”

Mike nodded absentmindedly as he started to feel more and more tired. So much had happened in the past three days that he can’t believe. First he gets shot into space, then he gets forced to watch bad movies with a head injury, and now he’s developed epilepsy. He missed home and his family. Sure the bots were nice, but nothing beat being home and free. He decided to make a vow to bring the bots with him when escaped; with that promise in his mind he slowly drifted off to sleep.

A few months later a majority of the symptoms were gone, but the long term and probably permanent effects still affected him. Mike became much more cheerful and personable once the major headaches went away, but the darker personality simmer closer to the surface than it did before the injury. He was irritated by certain things quickly and his desperation to escape was very apparent. The escape plans usually didn’t succeed as Mike’s brain stayed a bit hazy and thing just didn’t connect as quickly as before.

“Mike!” Crow called, “It’s almost time for the experiment!”

Mike smiled, there was another thing that changed. The bots finally stopped calling him Not Joel and he had grown very attached to them as well. He felt like he had a couple of younger twin brothers. They were so mischievous sometimes, but they did care about him. Not to mention the experiments were always the worst; it gave him a headache for hours afterwards and the strain on his eyes was unbelievable.

“Mike! Move your butt!” Tom called again.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Mike shook out of his trance.

He had learned a lot about epilepsy from the medical book that the mads have gifted him. He would have a few smaller scale seizures a day; staring blankly off into space and maybe some twitching for a few seconds. Luckily the medication seemed to be helping a lot and he only had one tonic-clonic or grand mal seizure since. Sure he wasn’t the same guys as before, but isn’t life like that? Events change and shape you as you go through life; just because this change was rather radical doesn’t mean it was a bad thing. His drive to get off of the SOL is much stronger than what it would have been if he didn’t get hit on the head. He would leave and he would take the all the bots with him. He promised himself that.


	2. PSA Art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I drew a PSA announcement about Epilepsy and what to do when someone has a seizure.


End file.
